Sunday, May 20, 2012
News 5/20----writers had space x on their mind!
Human Spaceflight News
Sunday, May 20, 2012
HEADLINES AND LEADS
SpaceX Falcon 9 launch aborted
William Harwood - CBS News
With its engines throttling up to full thrust, launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying a commercial cargo ship bound for the International Space Station was aborted at the last instant early Saturday when telemetry showed higher-than-allowable pressure readings in one of the rocket's nine first-stage powerplants. A post-scrub inspection revealed the problem was caused by a suspect check valve in an engine turbopump. Engineers with rocket-builder Space Exploration Technologies Corp. worked late Saturday to replace the valve and if no other problems crop up, the company hopes to make another launch attempt Tuesday.
SpaceX rocket launch aborted in last half-second
Marcia Dunn - Associated Press
A new private supply ship for the International Space Station remained stuck on the ground Saturday after rocket engine trouble led to a last-second abort of the historic flight. All nine engines for the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket roared to life Saturday morning. But with a mere half-second remaining before liftoff, the onboard computers automatically shut everything down. So instead of blasting off on a delivery mission to the space station, the rocket stayed on its launch pad amid a plume of engine exhaust. Even NASA's most seasoned launch commentator was taken off-guard. "Three, two, one, zero and liftoff," announced commentator George Diller, his voice trailing as the rocket failed to budge. "We've had a cutoff. Liftoff did not occur."
Possible engine problem delays U.S. rocket launch
Irene Klotz - Reuters
The launch of a privately owned Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station was delayed on Saturday when a computer detected a possible problem with one of the rocket's engines, a Space Exploration Technologies official said. Preparations for the company's trial cargo run to the International Space Station proceeded smoothly until 4:55 a.m. EDT (0855 GMT) when an onboard computer aborted the launch. "Liftoff ... we've had a cutoff. Liftoff did not occur," said NASA launch commentator George Diller, caught off guard by the sudden, last-minute turn of events.
Launching of Rocket by SpaceX Is Aborted
Kenneth Chang - New York Times
The launching of a privately owned cargo rocket heading to the International Space Station was aborted at the last second on Saturday morning. The rocket’s nine engines had ignited, but computers detected a high pressure in the chamber of the center engine and shut them down The rocket is held down during the final engine checks and never left the launching pad. The rocket and its cargo capsule, both built by the Space Exploration Technologies Corporation of Hawthorne, Calif., represent an important step in NASA’s evolution to rely more heavily on commercial companies for its human spaceflight program.
SpaceX aborts first private launch to space station
W.J. Hennigan - Los Angeles Times
The first mission by a private company to the International Space Station was aborted before dawn Saturday at Cape Canaveral, Fla., when computers detected an anomaly in one of the rocket's engines and automatically shut down the launch sequence. The countdown for Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX, was flawless until about 4:55 a.m. EDT when, at the last second, the rocket engines briefly lit up and then went dark. "Three, two, one, zero and liftoff," announced NASA commentator George Diller before he realized what had happened. "We've had a cutoff. Liftoff did not occur."
SpaceX Troubleshoots Engine; Looks to May 22
Mark Carreau - Aviation Week
A first-stage engine chamber over pressure appears responsible for the last -econd shutdown of the Falcon 9 rocket, preventing a May 19 lift off of the Dragon capsule on the the first U. S. commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS), according to Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX). A second attempt to launch the ground breaking mission from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., is possible May 22 or May 23 -- depending on the outcome of an inspection of the suspect first-stage No. 5 engine. A longer delay was likely, if the engine must be replaced. A second Falcon 9 already at Cape Canaveral could supply a ready replacement.
SpaceX Says Faulty Valve Caused Mission Abort
Andy Pasztor - Wall Street Journal
Space Exploration Technologies Corp. said a faulty engine valve was the culprit behind Saturday's aborted launch of the first private spacecraft aiming to dock with the international space station. Barely 14 hours after an engine problem caused it to scrub the closely-watched mission at the last second, the company vowed to try to launch again from Florida on Tuesday. The Falcon 9 rocket and unmanned Dragon capsule never got off the pad before launch-control computers, sensing higher-than-expected pressures in one of the nine engines, automatically started shutting down onboard systems. According to a statement from SpaceX, as the Southern California company is known, "we have discovered root cause and repairs are underway."
SpaceX plans Tuesday launch attempt
James Dean - Florida Today
SpaceX is working toward an early Tuesday second attempt to launch its Dragon capsule to the International Space Station, after replacing a turbopump valve on one of nine first-stage engines. The engine was responsible for a last-second abort of the first launch attempt to launch the NASA demonstration mission Saturday morning. After all the engines ignited at 4:55 a.m., computers detected high pressure in the combustion chamber of engine No. 5 and cut the engines off a half-second before a planned liftoff.
SpaceX launch aborted
Scott Powers – Orlando Sentinel
SpaceX's attempt to launch its Falcon 9 rocket carrying a capsule to the International Space Station has failed and another shot could be tried Tuesday morning. The countdown went to zero and ignition of all nine engines began, with flame curling beneath the rocket. But it quickly extinguished after a computer detected that one of the engines was running too hot and ignition was shut down with a half-second to spare. Liftoff did not occur and the rocket remained standing on the launchpad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The failed 4:55 a.m. launch means that SpaceX cannot try again before Tuesday at 3:44 a.m., and that's only if Saturday morning's attempt does not reveal any major problems.
SpaceX’s Commercial Launch to Space Station Aborted at Liftoff
Brendan McGarry - Bloomberg News
A U.S. mission to send the first unmanned commercial spacecraft to the International Space Station was aborted with a half second left in the countdown. Space Exploration Technologies Corp.’s Falcon 9 rocket, carrying the company’s Dragon capsule, attempted to lift off at 4:55 a.m. yesterday from Cape Canaveral, Florida. A computer detected an engine pressure problem, grounding the rocket and delaying the flight for a new attempt May 22.
SpaceX mission to space station scrubbed for now
Pete Spotts - Christian Science Monitor
SpaceX's first attempt to send its Dragon cargo capsule to the International Space Station ended abruptly Saturday morning when computers aboard the company's Falcon 9 rocket shut off the craft's engines just after ignition. The control system for the rocket, which uses a cluster of nine of the company's Merlin engines in its first stage, checks to ensure all the engines are running properly before the craft is released to begin its climb to space. After a flawless countdown, the engines ignited at 4:55 a.m. as scheduled. But the flight-control computer detected too much pressure in the combustion chamber of one of the engines and aborted the pre-dawn launch. The next launch opportunity comes at 3:44 a.m. Tuesday.
SpaceX scrubs launch to ISS
Jean-Louis Santini - Agence France Presse
The California-based company SpaceX on Saturday scrubbed the highly anticipated launch of its Dragon capsule toward the International Space Station due to a rocket engine problem. The last-second abort came when one of the Falcon 9's engines exceeded a technical limit that forced a shutdown of the launch attempt, which may be rescheduled as early as May 22. "Launch aborted: slightly high combustion chamber pressure on engine 5. Will adjust limits for countdown in a few days," SpaceX founder Elon Musk explained on the microblogging site Twitter.
SpaceX Launch Abort Traced to Faulty Rocket Valve
Clara Moskowitz - Space.com
A failed rocket engine valve appears to be responsible for the unexpected abort of a private SpaceX rocket launch before dawn on Saturday, officials said. SpaceX was slated to blast off its unmanned Dragon capsule and Falcon 9 rocket at 4:55 a.m. EDT (0855 GMT) here at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Just after igniting its main engines, the computer onboard the booster initiated an automatic abort due to a high pressure reading in one of the rocket's nine main engines. Dragon was due to fly to the International Space Station to become the first non-governmental vehicle to berth there. The spacecraft's next chance to launch is Tuesday at 3:44 a.m. EDT (0744 GMT), followed by a potential opportunity Wednesday (May 23) at 3:22 a.m. EDT (0722 GMT).
Rocket Liftoff Aborted A Half-Second Before Launch
Dana Farrington - NPR's The Two-Way
Moments after ignition, a privately funded spacecraft aborted its liftoff, delaying its mission to the International Space Station. SpaceX's unmanned rocket had a one-second window to take off from Cape Canaveral in Florida on Saturday morning, and the failed launch means the next opportunity won't be until early Tuesday morning.
Historic NASA facility sets sights on deep space
Robert Pearlman - Space.com
A test spacecraft that in two years will fly deeper into space than any vehicle designed for astronauts since NASA's Apollo moon program is set to arrive here next month, where it will be assembled in the same facility that readied the moon-bound spaceships 40 years ago. Parts for the first space-bound Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) will arrive in June for final assembly in the Operations and Checkout (O&C) building here at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, under contract to NASA, has overseen a $55 million renovation to the historic facility, which is now ready to begin processing the next generation capsule for its planned 2014 test launch.
Q&A with SpaceX founder and chief designer Elon Musk
Stephen Clark - SpaceflightNow.com
Spaceflight Now spoke with Elon Musk, the father of SpaceX and chief designer of the Falcon and Dragon vehicles, on the eve (Friday) of his company's biggest test yet. Musk established SpaceX in 2002 to revolutionize space travel, aiming to cut costs, boost reliability, and open spaceflight to the masses. So far, SpaceX has been successful in amassing a backlog of about 40 launches worth about $4 billion. The flights are for a mix of commercial and government customers, and the manifest is dominated by launches for NASA and Iridium, a mobile communications satellite operator. Musk will be stationed at SpaceX's control center at company headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif. Here are some excerpts from Musk's interview with Spaceflight Now…
Commercial flights can succeed
John Kelly - Florida Today
The barriers to a more robust commercial space flight industry in the United States go beyond NASA’s funding of private flights. That government’s investment is the most urgent issue this year, but the president of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation offered his take on the biggest issues facing the nascent industry in a wide-ranging discussion with Florida Today journalists on Friday.
The not-so-secret souvenirs riding historic SpaceX capsule flight to station
Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com
The first U.S. commercial spacecraft to attempt to visit the International Space Station, SpaceX's Dragon, will launch filled with cargo — and something a bit extra — for the orbiting outpost. The inaugural payload weighs approximately 1200 pounds (544 kilograms) and is mostly comprised of food for the station's crew, student experiments, and storage bags, but the capsule's compliment also includes a stash of space souvenirs commemorating the history-making mission.
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COMPLETE STORIES
SpaceX Falcon 9 launch aborted
William Harwood - CBS News
With its engines throttling up to full thrust, launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying a commercial cargo ship bound for the International Space Station was aborted at the last instant early Saturday when telemetry showed higher-than-allowable pressure readings in one of the rocket's nine first-stage powerplants.
A post-scrub inspection revealed the problem was caused by a suspect check valve in an engine turbopump. Engineers with rocket-builder Space Exploration Technologies Corp. worked late Saturday to replace the valve and if no other problems crop up, the company hopes to make another launch attempt Tuesday.
"During rigorous inspections of the engine, SpaceX engineers discovered a faulty check valve on the Merlin engine," company spokeswoman Kirstin Brost Grantham said in a statement. "We are now in the process of replacing the failed valve. Those repairs should be complete tonight. We will continue to review data on Sunday. If things look good, we will be ready to attempt to launch on Tuesday, May 22."
The dramatic launch abort early Saturday came at the end of a near-flawless countdown. Just a few moments after the International Space Station passed over launch complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, the countdown ticked into its final seconds, setting up a launch attempt at 4:55 a.m. EDT (GMT-4).
"Five, four, three, two, one, zero and lift...off," NASA commentator George Diller said hesitantly, expecting a launch as the nine first stage engines throttled up to full thrust. But an instant later, as a churning exhaust plume billowed in the pre-dawn sky, the engines shut down.
"We've had a cutoff," Diller quickly said. "Liftoff did not occur. We've had a launch abort. Standing by... We did not get confirmation from the first motion sensor that liftoff occurred. The flight computer is not in startup."
The SpaceX launch control team calmly worked through a detailed abort checklist, reconfiguring various systems to make sure the fully fueled rocket was in a safe configuration after the fiery engine shutdown.
"LD (launch director), the vehicle is safed," an engineer reported a few minutes later.
"LD copies. As reported by flight software, we had an abort on engine five chamber pressure high."
He was referring to telemetry indicating higher-than-allowable pressure inside the combustion chamber of engine No. 5, located in the center of the nine-engine first-stage cluster. The out-of-limits pressure reading triggered a computer-ordered abort a half-second before hold-down clamps would have released the rocket for flight.
"We hold the vehicle down with purpose to watch for this exact issue," said SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell. "Just like a pilot at the end of a runway revs the engines and looks at the gauges, we were revving the engines, we were looking at the gauges and we decided not to fly."
SpaceX founder and chief designer Elon Musk, overseeing the countdown from the company's mission control center in Hawthorne, Calif., initially tweeted that it might be possible to resolve the problem by changing the pressure limits in the control software.
But Shotwell said "that was early data. Further analysis of the data looks like it's something we want to go in and inspect."
After draining propellants, engineers gained access to the first stage engines for a detailed visual and boroscope internal inspection. Later in the day, Musk posted another tweet, this one saying "engine pressure anomaly traced to turbo pump valve. Replacing on engine 5 and verifying no common mode."
The next available launch opportunity comes at 3:44:32 a.m. Tuesday, with a third opportunity the next day. The forecast for Tuesday calls for a 60 percent chance of good weather.
Asked if the abort Saturday could be viewed by some as a failure for the infant commercial space program, Shotwell said "this is not a failure. We aborted with purpose. It would have been a failure if we were to have lifted off with an engine trending in this direction."
SpaceX holds a $1.6 billion commercial contract to provide 12 cargo flights to the space station for delivery of more than 44,000 pounds of equipment and supplies. The company initially planned three test flights under a separate contract valued at up to $396 million.
The first test flight was successfully carried out in December 2010 when a Dragon capsule was lofted into orbit and guided to a successful splashdown in the Pacific Ocean, the first commercial spacecraft ever recovered from orbit.
As originally envisioned, the second test flight would have tested rendezvous procedures and included a close-approach to the station with berthing deferred to the third flight. But SpaceX successfully lobbied NASA to combine the second and third test flights into a single mission.
The goal of the combined test flight is to rendezvous with the International Space Station and in so doing, demonstrate the Dragon capsule's ability to autonomously fly a precise trajectory, respond to commands and to safely abort an approach if something goes wrong.
If all of that goes well, the capsule will maneuver itself to a point just 30 feet below the space station where it will be grappled by the lab's robot arm and attached to an Earth-facing port on the lab's forward Harmony module.
The Dragon capsule is loaded with about 1,500 pounds of supplies and equipment. If all goes well, it will be detached from the station at the end of the month and return to Earth with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California. Routine cargo delivery missions are scheduled to start later this year, assuming no major problems develop during the test flight.
SpaceX rocket launch aborted in last half-second
Marcia Dunn - Associated Press
A new private supply ship for the International Space Station remained stuck on the ground Saturday after rocket engine trouble led to a last-second abort of the historic flight.
All nine engines for the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket roared to life Saturday morning. But with a mere half-second remaining before liftoff, the onboard computers automatically shut everything down. So instead of blasting off on a delivery mission to the space station, the rocket stayed on its launch pad amid a plume of engine exhaust.
Even NASA's most seasoned launch commentator was taken off-guard.
"Three, two, one, zero and liftoff," announced commentator George Diller, his voice trailing as the rocket failed to budge. "We've had a cutoff. Liftoff did not occur."
SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell said that high combustion chamber pressure in engine No. 5 was to blame. During an inspection later in the day, engineers discovered a faulty valve and worked into the evening to replace it.
Tuesday is the earliest that SpaceX can try again to send its cargo-laden Dragon capsule to the space station. The California-based company - formally known as Space Exploration Technologies Corp. - is targeting every few days for a launch attempt to save fuel in case of rendezvous problems at the space station. Wednesday also could be a launch option.
This was the first launch attempt by the several private U.S. companies hoping to take over the job of delivering cargo and eventually astronauts to the space station for NASA. Only governments have accomplished that to date: the United States, Russia, Europe and Japan.
NASA is looking to the private sector, in this post-shuttle era, to get American astronauts launching again from U.S. soil. SpaceX officials said that could happen in as few as three years, possibly four. Several other companies are in the running.
An estimated 1,000 SpaceX and NASA guests poured into the launching area in the wee hours of Saturday, hoping to see firsthand the start of this new commercial era. They left disappointed. The abort was especially disheartening given the perfect weather and the absence of any earlier countdown problems.
Shotwell was asked by a reporter whether she considered Saturday's abort a failure.
"This is not a failure," she said. "We aborted with purpose. It would be a failure if we were to have lifted off with an engine trending in this direction."
She added: "The software did what it was supposed to do" with the engine shutdown.
Everyone around town, at least, is rooting for a successful flight.
"Go SpaceX," read the sign outside Cape Canaveral City Hall. Until NASA's space shuttles retired last summer, the sign had urged on the launches of Discovery, Endeavour and, finally, Atlantis. Those ships are now relegated to museums.
Late last month, SpaceX conducted a test firing of the nine first-stage rocket engines at the pad. Each engine - including No. 5 - was "rock solid," Shotwell said.
The first flight of the Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, in June 2010, encountered similar last-second engine trouble, but there was enough time to fix the problem and fly the same day. SpaceX has just a single second each day to launch this time around because of the space station rendezvous.
Six months after the initial Falcon 9 flight, SpaceX launched another rocket with a Dragon capsule that reached orbit. It was the first time a private company put a spacecraft into orbit and then recovered it. The newest Dragon also is meant to splash down into the Pacific, returning space station experiments and equipment.
For Saturday's launch attempt, SpaceX's billionaire founder, Elon Musk, was in the SpaceX Mission Control in Hawthorne, Calif. He helped create PayPal and founded SpaceX 10 years ago. He also runs Tesla Motors, his electric car company.
Possible engine problem delays U.S. rocket launch
Irene Klotz - Reuters
The launch of a privately owned Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station was delayed on Saturday when a computer detected a possible problem with one of the rocket's engines, a Space Exploration Technologies official said.
Preparations for the company's trial cargo run to the International Space Station proceeded smoothly until 4:55 a.m. EDT (0855 GMT) when an onboard computer aborted the launch.
"Liftoff ... we've had a cutoff. Liftoff did not occur," said NASA launch commentator George Diller, caught off guard by the sudden, last-minute turn of events.
A computer monitoring the rocket's nine engines detected a climbing pressure reading in one engine's chambers and halted the launch 0.5 seconds before liftoff, SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell told reporters.
"Just like a pilot at the end of a runway revs the engines and looks at the gauges. We were revving the engines, we were looking at the gauges and we decided not to fly," Shotwell said, adding that the problem was unlikely to be a sensor issue.
The company's next launch opportunity is at 3:44 a.m. EDT (0744 GMT) on Tuesday.
It is trying to send the unmanned rocket, carrying a Dragon cargo capsule, to the International Space Station, and would be the first private company to do this.
SpaceX is one of two firms hired by NASA to fly cargo to the $100 billion orbital outpost, which is owned by the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan and Canada.
Since the U.S. space shuttles were retired last year, NASA has had no way to reach the station and is dependent on its partner countries to fly cargo and crew. It hopes to change that by buying rides commercially from U.S. companies.
Launching of Rocket by SpaceX Is Aborted
Kenneth Chang - New York Times
The launching of a privately owned cargo rocket heading to the International Space Station was aborted at the last second on Saturday morning.
The rocket’s nine engines had ignited, but computers detected a high pressure in the chamber of the center engine and shut them down The rocket is held down during the final engine checks and never left the launching pad.
The rocket and its cargo capsule, both built by the Space Exploration Technologies Corporation of Hawthorne, Calif., represent an important step in NASA’s evolution to rely more heavily on commercial companies for its human spaceflight program.
If the capsule, the Dragon, reaches the space station, it will be first commercial spacecraft to dock there. All previous vehicles, like NASA’s space shuttles and Russia’s Soyuz capsules, were government operated.
In the evening, SpaceX officials said they had identified a faulty valve as the problem and said the next launching attempt would be on Tuesday at 3:44 a.m.
The flight will be a second test in a $396 million program by SpaceX to develop the cargo ship. If successful, SpaceX will then enter a $1.6 billion contract for a dozen cargo flights to the station.
The SpaceX flight is carrying 1,000 pounds of nonessential cargo, mostly food and clothing.
NASA signed the development agreement with SpaceX in 2006 as part of an effort to encourage new commercial space ventures and to reduce launching costs for the space agency.
A second company with a NASA cargo contract, the Orbital Sciences Corporation of Vienna, Va., hopes to get its first test flight off the ground in the second half of this year.
The space agency now also wants to turn to commercial companies for the launching of its astronauts. SpaceX hopes an upgraded Dragon will capture at least some of that business. After the retirement of the space shuttles last year, NASA astronauts currently must ride on Russian Soyuz rockets to get into space.
SpaceX aborts first private launch to space station
W.J. Hennigan - Los Angeles Times
The first mission by a private company to the International Space Station was aborted before dawn Saturday at Cape Canaveral, Fla., when computers detected an anomaly in one of the rocket's engines and automatically shut down the launch sequence.
The countdown for Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX, was flawless until about 4:55 a.m. EDT when, at the last second, the rocket engines briefly lit up and then went dark.
"Three, two, one, zero and liftoff," announced NASA commentator George Diller before he realized what had happened. "We've had a cutoff. Liftoff did not occur."
In a news conference shortly afterward, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said that company computers detected high combustion chamber pressure on one of the Falcon 9 rocket's nine engines, which caused the shutdown.
"We need all nine to lift off, which is why we aborted," she said. "This is not a failure. We aborted on purpose."
Shotwell said SpaceX engineers and technicians would work to address the issue in the coming days. The next window for the company to launch to the space station is Tuesday at 3:44 a.m. SpaceX also has an opening Wednesday at 3:22 a.m.
The company, based in Hawthorne, Calif., is launching the rocket carrying its Dragon space capsule in a demonstration for NASA. The unmanned docking mission to the space station is intended to prove that SpaceX's rocket and capsule are ready to take on the task of hauling cargo for the space agency now that the space shuttle fleet has been retired.
NASA has begun hiring privately funded start-up companies for spacecraft development and is moving toward eventually outsourcing NASA space missions.
SpaceX has a $1.6-billion contract to haul cargo in 12 flights to the space station for NASA.
Even though the upcoming mission is a test flight, the Dragon capsule is carrying about half a ton of food and other supplies for the crew aboard the station.
The capsule is supposed to dock with the space station three days after launch. If the mission is successful, it will mark the first time that a privately built craft has docked with the $100-billion orbiting outpost.
SpaceX makes its Dragon capsule and Falcon 9 rocket at a sprawling facility in Hawthorne that once was used to assemble fuselage sections for Boeing 747s. The hardware is put on a big rig and trucked to Cape Canaveral for launches.
In December 2010, SpaceX became the first private company to send a spacecraft into orbit and return it intact. The company employs about 1,800 people.
SpaceX Troubleshoots Engine; Looks to May 22
Mark Carreau - Aviation Week
A first-stage engine chamber over pressure appears responsible for the last -econd shutdown of the Falcon 9 rocket, preventing a May 19 lift off of the Dragon capsule on the the first U. S. commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS), according to Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX).
A second attempt to launch the ground breaking mission from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., is possible May 22 or May 23 -- depending on the outcome of an inspection of the suspect first-stage No. 5 engine. A longer delay was likely, if the engine must be replaced. A second Falcon 9 already at Cape Canaveral could supply a ready replacement.
Preparations for a May 19 4:55 a.m. EDT liftoff looked promising after a smooth overnight countdown. The Falcon 9 flight control computer activated at the one minute mark and all nine of the Falcon 9 first stage SpaceX developed Merlin liquid oxygen/liquid kerosene engines ignited on schedule at the three second mark.
However, the flight computer commanded a shutdown at the half-second (T minus 0.5 seconds) point, when it noted a rise in the No. 5 engine chamber pressure, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell told reporters at a NASA-hosted news briefing.
“We had nominal ignition for all nine engines, with the exception of engine No. 5. Engine No. 5 started fine, then started to trend high due to chamber pressure,” Shotwell said.
Company technicians will examine the engine compartment. Engineers were especially interested in looking at the fuel pre-valve for the No. 5 engine since the early data indicated a low-fuel concentration, said Shotwell. A borescope inspection of the fuel pump is likely as well.
In the minutes immediately following the shutdown, SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk suggested the pressure tolerance limits might be adjusted for a second launch attempt. Musk was monitoring the countdown from the company’s Hawthorne, Calif., headquarters and commenting through Twitter.
Later, Shotwell said further data analysis pointed to an actual pressure rise, similar to one blamed for a do-over, or “recycle,” in the countdown for the first Falcon 9 launch in July 2010.
“We cannot blame a software bias for this one,” said Shotwell.
The Falcon 9 under went a successful April 30 launch pad hot fire test. Data from the recent test was a factor in diagnosing the chamber pressure rise.
SpaceX stressed the experimental nature of the flight.
“This is not a failure,” said Shotwell. “We aborted with purpose. It would have been a failure if we had lifted off with an engine trending in this direction.”
A desire to preserve as much of Dragon’s fuel for orbital maneuvers as possible restricts future launch opportunities to every third day -- which assures the most accurate trajectory of the Falcon 9/Dragon into the orbital plane of the space station. However, SpaceX said a second launch attempt on May 23 is possible.
A May 22 launch would be timed for 3:44 a.m. and a May 23 attempt for 3:22 a.m., according to NASA.
After May 29, the high temperatures from an increasing solar beta angle on the space station’s orbital plane would restrict additional launch attempts until after mid-June.
“We are ready to support, when SpaceX is ready to go,” said Alan Lindenmoyer, NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program manager.
The three week SpaceX test mission is flying under the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) banner. The initiative was established six years ago to nurture the development of U.S. commercial ISS cargo providers.
During the test flight, the unpiloted Dragon capsule will attempt to rendezvous with the station on the mission’s second day. If a series of NASA monitored navigation, guidance and communications checks go well, the freighter will retreat, then return the following day. The capsule will attempt to move within reach of the station’s 58-foot-long Canadarm2.
Two astronauts aboard the station will command the arm to grapple Dragon and berth it to the space station.
SpaceX Says Faulty Valve Caused Mission Abort
Andy Pasztor - Wall Street Journal
Space Exploration Technologies Corp. said a faulty engine valve was the culprit behind Saturday's aborted launch of the first private spacecraft aiming to dock with the international space station.
Barely 14 hours after an engine problem caused it to scrub the closely-watched mission at the last second, the company vowed to try to launch again from Florida on Tuesday. The Falcon 9 rocket and unmanned Dragon capsule never got off the pad before launch-control computers, sensing higher-than-expected pressures in one of the nine engines, automatically started shutting down onboard systems.
According to a statement from SpaceX, as the Southern California company is known, "we have discovered root cause and repairs are underway."
A spokeswoman said SpaceX engineers "discovered a faulty check valve" on the suspect engine and work to fix the problem is expected to be completed Saturday night.
If data analysis on Sunday doesn't indicate any further surprises, according to a company spokeswoman, "we will be ready to launch again" before dawn on Tuesday. Given the position of the orbiting space station, that's the earliest opportunity for SpaceX to blast the capsule into the precise orbit to be able to attempt the rendezvous.
Before the pre-dawn launch attempt, officials of SpaceX, as the company is called, predicted somewhat greater than a 50-50 chance of launching.
In order to place the Dragon capsule in the correct orbit to be able to link up with the speeding space station orbiting more than 200 miles above the earth, SpaceX must launch precisely at a pre-determined moment.
The abort was preceded by a picture perfect countdown until the automated command was issued to ignite the engines. At that point, the rocket's design calls for Falcon 9 to be mechanically held down on the launch pad for an instant, until computers determine that all propulsion and other systems are operating normally.
NASA launch commentator George Diller uttered the word "liftoff" as the glow of the engines began lighting up the dark sky around Cape Canaveral, only to quickly say "we've had a cutoff; liftoff did not occur."
SpaceX officials only had a one-second launch window, so they had no time to determine whether the problem was caused by a faulty sensor, engine malfunction or perhaps some other reason.
Both Falcon 1, the Southern California company's initial rocket model, and the larger Falcon 9, which successfully flew twice before, have experienced similar aborts on the launch pad, according to company officials. Indeed, Elon Musk, the company's founder, chief executive and chief technical officer, over the years has touted the safety feature as an important safeguard against potentially botched launches.
The pre-dawn buildup and ultimate letdown was watched by about 1,000 guests of SpaceX and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, which has contracted to have the company transport cargo to the international space station.
The emotional rollercoaster was reflected in the reactions of Mr. Musk, a 40-year-old former Internet entrepreneur who oversaw preparations from the company's mission-control center in Hawthorne, Calif.
As the countdown entered the final hours without any weather concerns or obvious mechanical or computer problems, he expressed his optimism via a message on Twitter: "Next time Dragon sees the sun, it should be doing 17,000 mph over the Atlantic," the SpaceX chief wrote.
Barely minutes after the aborted launch, seemingly caused by slightly higher than expected pressure in the combustion chamber of one engine, Mr. Musk sent another message: "Will adjust limits for countdown in a few days."
In an interview before the launch attempt, Mr. Musk tried to play down expectations by stressing the challenges of launching on such a precise schedule, and then sending the Dragon capsule, loaded with about 1,000 pounds of supplies, on "an extremely precise trajectory" to intercept and eventually dock with the international space station.
Additional technical details emerged at a news conference following the aborted launch, even as NASA and SpaceX officials already were detailing potential launch times for early next week.
SpaceX officials said the launch was aborted less than a second before the liquid-fueled rocket was supposed to start lifting off the pad. They said all nine of its engines ignited at the correct instant and were firing, but one showed higher than expected pressure in its combustion chamber. Gwynne Shotwell, president of SpaceX, told reporters pressure measurements continued to climb, which meant "we aborted with (the) purpose" of preventing bigger problems.
Ms. Shotwell said typically, such pressures difficulties stem from inadequate fuel flow. SpaceX had an engine hiccup on its first orbital flight, in December 2010, which turned out to be a premature shutdown because of fuel starvation, according to industry officials. It didn't disrupt the mission. Before a definitive cause for Saturday's abort is established, company engineers will spend the weekend examining the suspect engine and analyzing computer data.
"This doesn't look like a sensor failure," Ms. Shotwell said. Comparing the sequence of events to an airline pilot revving up jet engines as a precaution before rolling down the runway for takeoff, she emphasized the abort was intended to prevent a launch failure.
"We were revving the engines, we were looking at the gauges and we decided not to fly," according to Ms. Shotwell
She added that "it would have been a failure" to try to fly with a malfunctioning engine, because the Falcon 9 rocket needs all nine engines working properly when it lifts off the pad.
SpaceX plans to repair or replace the suspect engine in time for another attempt next week, Ms. Shotwell said.
Preparations for test flight had been closely watched by industry officials, lawmakers and others, as controversy swirls around NASA's plans to outsource some of its core functions to private entities. SpaceX is on the cutting edge of the effort to have commercially developed and operated rockets and vehicles transport cargo, and eventually astronauts, to the space station. The shift is supposed to occur by the second half of this decade.
But plans for the speed and nature of that anticipated transition remain uncertain. Buffeted by shrinking budgets, internal policy debates and friction with Congress, NASA's traditional bipartisan support is fraying.
House Republican leaders, for example, are pushing to overturn NASA's plan to continue providing seed money to help a number of companies develop and test rival designs for space taxis, intended to be used by astronauts. SpaceX is one of the companies currently receiving such funds, and it is vying to get more.
Republican lawmakers, by contrast, want NASA to quickly pick a single winning design and then support only one company through later development phases. They believe such a strategy will save time and money.
SpaceX plans Tuesday launch attempt
James Dean - Florida Today
SpaceX is working toward an early Tuesday second attempt to launch its Dragon capsule to the International Space Station, after replacing a turbopump valve on one of nine first-stage engines.
The engine was responsible for a last-second abort of the first launch attempt to launch the NASA demonstration mission Saturday morning.
After all the engines ignited at 4:55 a.m., computers detected high pressure in the combustion chamber of engine No. 5 and cut the engines off a half-second before a planned liftoff.
Technicians were expected to begin inspecting the engine around noon Saturday at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Launch Complex 40.
In a Twitter message a little after 5 p.m., Company CEO Elon Musk (@elonmusk) said the pressure problem had been traced to a turbopump valve that would be replaced on the engine.
A launch Tuesday would be planned at 3:44 a.m. There's a 60 percent chance of favorable weather conditions.
SpaceX had prepared for the possibility that the entire engine would need to be swapped out, a more time consuming operation, but the inspections appear to have determined that will not be necessary.
SpaceX launch aborted
Scott Powers – Orlando Sentinel
SpaceX's attempt to launch its Falcon 9 rocket carrying a capsule to the International Space Station has failed and another shot could be tried Tuesday morning.
The countdown went to zero and ignition of all nine engines began, with flame curling beneath the rocket. But it quickly extinguished after a computer detected that one of the engines was running too hot and ignition was shut down with a half-second to spare.
Liftoff did not occur and the rocket remained standing on the launchpad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
The failed 4:55 a.m. launch means that SpaceX cannot try again before Tuesday at 3:44 a.m., and that's only if Saturday morning's attempt does not reveal any major problems.
SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell and NASA officials hope that the problem can be fixed in time for Tuesday. A Wednesday window also has opened, at 3:22 a.m.
The problem came on engine 5. The computer detected chamber pressure was rising too high during the ignition. That indicated it was running too hot, which indicated there was too low a level of fuel in the combustion, Shotwell said. "This does not look like a sensor failure," she said.
The 180-foot-tall Falcon 9 needed all nine engines for a successful launch, so Shotwell characterized the abort as "not a failure."
"We aborted with purpose," she said. "It would be a failure if we had lifted off with one engine trending in this direction."
This was to be the start of a the world's new space race. SpaceX and NASA want the Dragon capsule atop the rocket to rendezvous with the International Space Station, and possibly deliver a half-ton of supplies.
If that yet occurs, it would mark the first time a private company had delivered goods to the station, and would open a new era in which SpaceX and other companies start replacing much of what NASA's space shuttles had done before the shuttle program was terminated last summer.
SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket could be rolled back into the hangar for inspection and repairs, including possible disassembly. In fact, SpaceX has a second Falcon 9 rocket at Kennedy Space Center and could swap the engine 5s if necessary. Shotwell said there was a chance that could be done before Tuesday.
This would have been the third launch of the Falcon 9 rocket. The first two also were aborted on first try.
The glitch and computer scrub surprised everyone. At Kennedy Space Center, and on NASA TV, the commentator George Diller counted down, "Three, two, one, zero and [pause] lift-off. We've had a cut-off. Lift-off did not occur. We've got a launch abort."
As thousands watched for the pre-dawn launch and heard the countdown reach zero, nothing happened.
"I was looking for the first motion, which I thought I saw. But it cut off at a half a second," Diller said later. "I thought it was out of here. But the first motion sensors indicated it had not moved."
SpaceX’s Commercial Launch to Space Station Aborted at Liftoff
Brendan McGarry - Bloomberg News
A U.S. mission to send the first unmanned commercial spacecraft to the International Space Station was aborted with a half second left in the countdown.
Space Exploration Technologies Corp.’s Falcon 9 rocket, carrying the company’s Dragon capsule, attempted to lift off at 4:55 a.m. yesterday from Cape Canaveral, Florida. A computer detected an engine pressure problem, grounding the rocket and delaying the flight for a new attempt May 22.
The closely held company, known as SpaceX and led by billionaire Elon Musk, was trying to make history by docking its vehicle with the station. The U.S. government retired its own shuttle fleet last year and relies on other countries for rides to space. The U.S. wants the private sector to take over the job of ferrying supplies to and from the lab.
“This is not a failure,” Gwynne Shotwell, president of Hawthorne, California-based SpaceX, said during a National Aeronautics and Space Administration press conference after the scrubbed attempt. “We aborted with purpose. It would be a failure if we were to have lifted off with an engine trending in this direction.”
The engines ignited and rumbled momentarily before going silent. An on-board computer aborted the launch a half-second before liftoff after detecting high pressure in engine five, possibly caused by a fuel valve malfunction, Shotwell said. An inspection later yesterday found a faulty valve on the engine, and it was to be replaced last night.
“The software did what it was supposed to do -- aborted engine five, and it went through the remaining engine shutdown,” she said. The Falcon 9 rocket needs all nine engines for liftoff and at least seven to achieve orbit.
Launch Delays
The problem was similar to one that occurred during the maiden flight of the Falcon 9 in 2010, Shotwell said. That lift- off was also scrubbed, though only temporarily.
SpaceX planned to have technicians inspect the engine. The new launch was rescheduled for May 22, with a back-up date the following day.
NASA, which has worked with SpaceX on the launch, streamed the pre-dawn liftoff live on its website. The attempt followed almost three years of delays and featured an overhauled capsule that was “fundamentally a new spacecraft,” Shotwell said May 18.
It was to be the third flight of the Falcon 9 rocket. Three-quarters of the world’s families of rockets had at least one failure in the first three flights, according to research cited in a press kit distributed by SpaceX days before the launch.
International Partners
Nine out of 10 launch failures are caused by engine malfunctions, stage separation mishaps or avionics problems, according to the 31-page document.
Only spacecraft developed by the governments of the U.S., Europe, Japan and Russia have docked with the station, which orbits about 240 miles above Earth. None of those vehicles has the ability to return significant amounts of science experiments to Earth, as the manned shuttle did and as the Dragon capsule is designed to do.
The spacecraft held more than 1,000 pounds of cargo such as food, clothing and lab equipment as well as student science experiments. Officials said the supplies weren’t critical to the space station mission.
NASA retired the shuttle in July before companies such as SpaceX and Orbital Sciences Corp. (ORB) (ORB), based in Dulles, Virginia, proved they could resupply the station. The Obama administration a year earlier canceled a program to develop a shuttle successor, betting the private sector would offer lower costs.
Commercial Reliance
SpaceX and Orbital have been awarded almost $700 million in NASA contracts to develop the ability to deliver cargo to the station, and another $3.5 billion for 20 resupply missions slated to begin this fall.
The decision to rely on commercial technology to carry supplies starting in 2012 and astronauts in 2017 “is inherently risky because the vehicles are not yet proven and are experiencing delays in development” according to a March report by the Government Accountability Office, Congress’s investigative arm.
NASA doesn’t have agreements with its Russian, Japanese and European partners beyond 2016, according to the report. If those deals and the commercial launches don’t work out, “the situation could lead to a potential cargo shortfall,” the GAO said.
SpaceX’s Dragon capsule was scheduled to separate from the rocket about 10 minutes after liftoff, according to Shotwell.
It was to spend the first 24 hours essentially catching up to the station. Early May 21, it was to perform a fly-by at a distance of 1.5 miles to test sensors and flight systems before attempting to dock early May 22.
The mission follows a planned May 7 liftoff that was postponed to test software. The flight to the station was initially projected for June 2009.
SpaceX mission to space station scrubbed for now
Pete Spotts - Christian Science Monitor
SpaceX's first attempt to send its Dragon cargo capsule to the International Space Station ended abruptly Saturday morning when computers aboard the company's Falcon 9 rocket shut off the craft's engines just after ignition.
The control system for the rocket, which uses a cluster of nine of the company's Merlin engines in its first stage, checks to ensure all the engines are running properly before the craft is released to begin its climb to space.
After a flawless countdown, the engines ignited at 4:55 a.m. as scheduled. But the flight-control computer detected too much pressure in the combustion chamber of one of the engines and aborted the pre-dawn launch. The next launch opportunity comes at 3:44 a.m. Tuesday.
This mission combines into one attempt the objectives of two demonstration flights the company must perform for NASA before it begins regular cargo runs to and from the International Space Station under a $1.6 billion, 12-mission space-station resupply contract.
SpaceX must show that the automated Dragon spacecraft is capable of the precision flying needed to operate safely in the station's vicinity before docking – including a rendezvous-abort maneuver – as well as perform the maneuvers needed to bring it within reach of the space station's robotic arm.
Once station crew members have Dragon in their grasp, they use the arm to dock the craft with the station.
This mission represents only the third for the Falcon 9. The rocket's initial test launch in June 2010 was successful. SpaceX's hardware cleared another key milestone the following December, when the company lofted, orbited, and recovered its Dragon capsule – becoming the first commercial venture to pull off such a feat.
Although the previous successes have fed high expectations for this mission, SpaceX founder and chief designer Elon Musk cautioned during a press briefing in April previewing the mission that the rocket “is still relatively new.”
At a post-scrub briefing Saturday morning, SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell said all nine engines ignited normally, but the flight-control computer detected too much pressure in engine five's combustion chamber, triggering the abort a half second later.
Although the rocket can still reach orbit if up to two engines fail, it needs all nine to lift off.
Asked if today's aborted launch represented a failure, she replied that it would have been a failure if the rocket had launched with the glitch.
After engines ignite, “we hold the vehicle down for this purpose, to watch for this exact issue,” she said. “ Just like a pilot at the end of a runway revs the engines and looks at the gauges, we were revving the engines, looking at the gauges, and we decided not to fly,” she said.
Although problems like this can crop up if a pressure sensor or software is faulty, neither seems to be the case here. “We can't blame the software guys for this one,” Shotwell said.
SpaceX saw a similar event during the Falcon 9's first launch in 2010, she said. But since that mission involved no on-orbit rendezvous, SpaceX was able to troubleshoot the problem and launch later the same day. Today, the launch window for the mission was only a few seconds long to ensure Dragon reaches the station with enough propellant for its thrusters to repeat test maneuvers if necessary.
A quick early look at the data on the engines indicated that the pressure was too high in engine five because it was running hot – a sign it wasn't getting enough fuel, Ms. Shotwell said. Technicians will inspect the engine today to determine the cause and begin any repairs. If the engine needs to be replaced, SpaceX has another Falcon 9 in the hanger at the Kennedy Space Center technicians can tap for a replacement.
Ms. Shotwell noted that if the engine needs to be swapped, workers can perform the change-out and still have the rocket ready for another launch Monday. The next launch opportunity after that comes Tuesday morning at 3:22 a.m.
SpaceX is one of two companies that have contracts with NASA to provide resupply flights to the space station. The second is Orbital Science Corporation, which inked a deal worth $1.9 billion for eight resupply missions between 2012 and 2015. The company is slated to launch its Antares rocket and Cygnus cargo craft on their first demonstration flight later this year.
But the Falcon 9/Dragon package represents a unique capability for NASA and the space-station program, NASA officials say. Unlike all the other automated cargo craft supplying the station, Dragon is designed to bring cargo back to Earth as well – ranging from samples used in on-orbit science experiments to space-station components that can be repaired or refurbished.
In a process started in 2006, NASA has turned to commercial launch providers to resupply the space station in order to focus its efforts on sending human explorers beyond low-Earth orbit. In addition to using commercial carriers for cargo, the agency is working with six companies on systems that would carry humans to low-Earth orbit as well.
SpaceX scrubs launch to ISS
Jean-Louis Santini - Agence France Presse
The California-based company SpaceX on Saturday scrubbed the highly anticipated launch of its Dragon capsule toward the International Space Station due to a rocket engine problem.
The last-second abort came when one of the Falcon 9's engines exceeded a technical limit that forced a shutdown of the launch attempt, which may be rescheduled as early as May 22.
"Launch aborted: slightly high combustion chamber pressure on engine 5. Will adjust limits for countdown in a few days," SpaceX founder Elon Musk explained on the microblogging site Twitter.
A SpaceX spokesman said engineers would look into the causes, but that the issue was not believed to be something entirely new.
"The computer checks all of the engine elemetry," said the spokesman on SpaceX's live broadcast of the event. "We detected something was wrong with one of the limits" on one of the rocket's nine engines.
The next opportunity for launch is at 3:44 am on Tuesday, May 22, according to NASA. A press briefing to detail the causes of the delay was set for 6:30 am (1030 GMT).
The launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, carrying the unmanned Dragon and over half a ton of cargo toward the orbiting lab, will mark the first attempt to send a privately built spacecraft to the research outpost, where it plans to do a fly-under followed by a berthing.
SpaceX is the first of several US competitors to try sending its own cargo-bearing spacecraft to the ISS with the goal of restoring US access to space for human travelers by 2015.
The company made history with its Dragon launch in December 2010, becoming the first commercial outfit to send a spacecraft into orbit and back.
Until now, only the space agencies of Russia, Japan and Europe have been able to send supply ships to the ISS.
The United States had that capacity too, with its iconic space shuttle that long served as part astronaut bus, part delivery truck for the lab.
But the 30-year shuttle program ended for good in 2011, leaving Russia as the sole taxi for astronauts to the ISS until private industry could come up with a replacement.
SpaceX has benefited from NASA dollars in its quest but has also poured its own money into the endeavor.
SpaceX and Orbital Sciences Corporation both have billion-dollar contracts with NASA to supply cargo to the ISS in the coming years, and they get NASA funds in exchange for meeting key milestones in their projects.
NASA has given SpaceX about $390 million so far of the total $680 million SpaceX has spent on cargo development, Shotwell said.
SpaceX also gets funding from NASA on a separate effort to develop a commercial crew vehicle for carrying astronauts to space, along with competitors Blue Origin, Boeing and Sierra Nevada.
In a few years' time, SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell said she hopes SpaceX will be able to undercut the hefty price NASA pays Russia for US astronauts to get a seat aboard the Soyuz space capsule -- around $63 million a ticket.
With seven seats aboard the Dragon capsule, she said SpaceX could someday offer that to NASA for $140 million per mission -- about $20 million per seat.
SpaceX Launch Abort Traced to Faulty Rocket Valve
Clara Moskowitz - Space.com
A failed rocket engine valve appears to be responsible for the unexpected abort of a private SpaceX rocket launch before dawn on Saturday, officials said.
SpaceX was slated to blast off its unmanned Dragon capsule and Falcon 9 rocket at 4:55 a.m. EDT (0855 GMT) here at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Just after igniting its main engines, the computer onboard the booster initiated an automatic abort due to a high pressure reading in one of the rocket's nine main engines.
Dragon was due to fly to the International Space Station to become the first non-governmental vehicle to berth there. The spacecraft's next chance to launch is Tuesday at 3:44 a.m. EDT (0744 GMT), followed by a potential opportunity Wednesday (May 23) at 3:22 a.m. EDT (0722 GMT).
Saturday afternoon SpaceX engineers examined the rocket, and traced the problem back to the check valve on the Falcon 9's fifth Merlin engine (the booster has a total of nine).
"We have discovered root cause and repairs are underway," SpaceX officials said in a statement.
Technicians are now working to replace the failed valve for a second try at launch.
"Those repairs should be complete tonight," officials said. "We will continue to review data on Sunday. If things look good, we will be ready to attempt to launch on Tuesday, May 22nd at 3:44 AM Eastern."
The flight is a trial run for SpaceX's plan to deliver cargo, and eventually crew, to the space station. The mission is partially funded by NASA's COTS (Commercial Orbital Transportation Services) program, and the firm has a NASA contract to fly 12 delivery missions to the outpost once test flights are completed.
"We're ready to support when SpaceX is ready to go," Alan Lindenmoyer, manager of NASA's commercial crew and cargo program, said during a news briefing following the launch attempt.
Officials from both NASA and SpaceX have emphasized the uncertain nature of test flights, and said that the main goal was to gather more data about the vehicle.
"This is not a failure," SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell said. "We aborted with purpose. It would have been a failure if we had lifted off with an engine trending in this direction."
Rocket Liftoff Aborted A Half-Second Before Launch
Dana Farrington - NPR's The Two-Way
Moments after ignition, a privately funded spacecraft aborted its liftoff, delaying its mission to the International Space Station.
SpaceX's unmanned rocket had a one-second window to take off from Cape Canaveral in Florida on Saturday morning, and the failed launch means the next opportunity won't be until early Tuesday morning.
The founder of SpaceX, Elon Musk, had been tweeting from the company's California headquarters leading up to the scheduled launch time of 4:55 a.m. ET.
"Whatever happens today, we could not have done it without @NASA, but errors are ours alone and me most of all," he said.
The successful launch would have been just the beginning in a series of tests for the private spacecraft.
The Dragon capsule, perched atop the Falcon 9 rocket, would become the first commercial spacecraft to visit the International Space Station. Even after it eventually launches, though, it will be a few days — filled with more trials — before the Dragon can berth.
As the AP reports, it was the Falcon 9's onboard computers that shut the operation down with just a half-second to launch.
Even NASA's most seasoned launch commentator was taken off-guard.
"Three, two, one, zero and liftoff," announced commentator George Diller, his voice trailing as the rocket failed to budge. "We've had a cutoff. Liftoff did not occur."
SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell confirmed Elon Musk's earlier tweet that the high-combustion chamber pressure in engine No. 5 was to blame for the shutdown. Technicians are investigating further; if they need it, there's a spare engine available.
In a briefing after the launch attempt, SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell likened the process to a commercial pilot revving the plane's engines before taking off.
"We were revving the engines, looking at the gauges, and we decided not to fly," she said.
She also said that the required wait time between launches has to do with the trajectory of the space station. The next chance to launch will be either 3:44 a.m. ET on Tuesday or 3:22 a.m. on Wednesday.
Musk gives an indication of what prevented the launch via Twitter: "slightly high combustion chamber pressure on engine 5. Will adjust limits for countdown in a few days." NASA says, "the teams will continue to look at the data and assess a launch attempt on May 22."
According to SpaceX, it will take just under 10 minutes for the capsule to reach its preliminary orbit. On Day 2, Dragon will orbit Earth on its way to the space station. Before docking, which should happen on Day 4, it has to perform a series of tests and maneuvers to check whether it's ready for contact. SpaceX says:
"NASA decides if Dragon is allowed to attempt to berth with the station. If so, Dragon approaches; it is captured by [the] station's robotic arm and attached to the station. This requires extreme precision even as both Dragon and station orbit the Earth every 90 minutes."
This mission will involve only nonessential cargo, so the six astronauts aboard the space station will be able to get by if they don't get the goods.
After about two weeks, Dragon should detach and come back to Earth with a splash in the Pacific.
The mission presents challenges from start to finish, The Christian Science Monitor says.
"The mission is technically demanding – cramming into one orbital outing an agenda that the Gemini program in the 1960s took several missions to accomplish."
A successful mission would set quite a precedent, too. NPR's Nell Greenfieldboyce reported on the private infusion in the space business Friday:
"The highly anticipated mission could mark the beginning of what some say could be a new era in spaceflight, with private companies operating taxi services that could start taking people to orbit in just a few years."
So far only Europe, Russia, Japan and the U.S. have sent spacecraft to the space station.
"There's no question this is a historic flight," SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said at a news conference Friday, as reported by the AP.
It won't be the only first for SpaceX, either, as NASA notes. It launched the same rocket and spacecraft in 2010, becoming "the first private organization to launch and recover a spacecraft from Earth orbit."
SpaceX says the capsule is designed to hold both cargo and people. The AP says the company will stick to supplies for now, but "within three or four years, the goal is to have astronauts on board so Americans no longer have to hitch expensive rides on Russian rockets."
The NASA space shuttle program ended last summer with the launch of Atlantis. At that point, NASA turned to the private sector for delivery duties, the AP says. SpaceX has been working closely with NASA to prepare for this mission, all the while working through cultural differences between the entities, Greenfieldboyce reports.
One thing both NASA and SpaceX agree on, the AP says, is that this is a test flight. SpaceX says:
"If any aspect of the mission is not successful, SpaceX will learn from the experience and try again."
Historic NASA facility sets sights on deep space
Robert Pearlman - Space.com
A test spacecraft that in two years will fly deeper into space than any vehicle designed for astronauts since NASA's Apollo moon program is set to arrive here next month, where it will be assembled in the same facility that readied the moon-bound spaceships 40 years ago.
Parts for the first space-bound Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) will arrive in June for final assembly in the Operations and Checkout (O&C) building here at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, under contract to NASA, has overseen a $55 million renovation to the historic facility, which is now ready to begin processing the next generation capsule for its planned 2014 test launch.
NASA and Lockheed Martin guided Space.com and other members of the media on a tour through the O&C Thursday, where a ground test version of the Orion capsule is being used to make final preparations for the arrival of the first space-bound craft.
"Building the (spacecraft) here has never been done before, so this is kind of a first" Jim Kemp, Lockheed Martin's director for Orion assembly, testing and launch operations, said. "There's been a lot of integration in this building, Apollo was integrated here, (but) it didn't look anything like this." [Gallery: NASA's Orion Deep Space Capsule]
"We made extensive modifications to the facility," Kemp said.
Flexible facility
"A lot of the things we did to the facility was to make it more flexible," Kemp explained. "I think if you go into most of the facilities on this campus (at Kennedy Space Center), you'll see a lot of structures bolted to the ground. Anywhere you are bolting something to the floor, you are creating a unique place that can't be used for anything else. You've created a monument. So we designed this thing with no monuments."
Kemp noted that almost everything in the O&C is on wheels and on air bearings so that workstations can be moved around as rapidly as required. Running along the base of the floor are steel plates covering utility service locations, so portable power and tool carts can be plugged in wherever they are needed.
"The investment that you make when creating a facility this way — which is actually less expensive to build — is that you have full flexibility in reconfiguring your factory," he said. "And if you design all your tooling and equipment to move very readily in that factory, you can redesign the building in rapid fashion."
Kemp said that this type of modular work-flow is rare, not only within Lockheed's other divisions but in the aerospace industry as a whole.
"Lean production has been around for quite a while, but it is now finding its way into the aerospace business," Kemp told Space.com.
Designed for exploration
The most prominent part of the redesigned O&C workstations is located about halfway down the 70,000-square-foot (6,500-square-meter) high bay. Currently occupied by a ground test version of the MPCV, the test stand will soon be occupied by the unmanned capsule that is set to launch on a demonstration flight in 2014.
"What we're using (the ground test capsule) for is to actually test out all of our ground equipment," Kemp said. "We're kind of fit-checking it here in the workstation, making sure operationally we know how to get it in and out."
Temporary lighting and work platforms are also being adjusted to prepare for when the capsule begins assembly.
"The vehicle we're getting ready to start on here is for our flight test to go into space," Kemp said. "The mission for that (capsule) is going to be a high velocity re-entry, so it is going to go beyond low-Earth orbit, which is an important thing for us. Our vehicle is designed for exploration, so it needs to be able to handle higher velocity re-entries."
The test flight, which will launch on a United Launch Alliance Delta 4 Heavy rocket, will take the Orion MPCV capsule to an altitude of more than 3,600 miles (5,800 kilometers), or more than 15 times farther away from Earth than the International Space Station. Orion will return home at a speed that is almost 5,000 mph (about 8,050 kph) faster than any current human spacecraft.
It will test the kind of return that will be required when astronauts come home from voyages beyond low-Earth orbit, such as to an asteroid or Mars. As the Orion capsule re-enters the atmosphere, it will endure temperatures of almost 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit (1,093 degrees Celsius), higher than any manned spacecraft since astronauts returned from the moon.
"This operation is all about agility and change. We're doing a development article and it is the first time we've built a capsule in a very long time and we've never built something this big," Kemp said.
Q&A with SpaceX founder and chief designer Elon Musk
Stephen Clark - SpaceflightNow.com
Spaceflight Now spoke with Elon Musk, the father of SpaceX and chief designer of the Falcon and Dragon vehicles, on the eve (Friday) of his company's biggest test yet.
Musk established SpaceX in 2002 to revolutionize space travel, aiming to cut costs, boost reliability, and open spaceflight to the masses. So far, SpaceX has been successful in amassing a backlog of about 40 launches worth about $4 billion.
The flights are for a mix of commercial and government customers, and the manifest is dominated by launches for NASA and Iridium, a mobile communications satellite operator.
Musk was a co-founder of PayPal and Zip2. Since then, he has founded and led SpaceX and Tesla Motors, a growing electric car maker. He spoke with Spaceflight Now on Friday, less than 24 hours before his company's Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft were scheduled to take off for the International Space Station.
The flight is a crucial demonstration for SpaceX, which holds a NASA contract to deliver cargo to the space station. SpaceX is competing for government funding to eventually carry crews.
Musk will be stationed at SpaceX's control center at company headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif.
Here are some excerpts from Musk's interview with Spaceflight Now:
Question: How nervous are you on the eve of launch?
Musk: I feel pretty calm, believe it or not.
Question: How do you think you will feel tomorrow morning?
Musk: [Laughter] Either really happy or really sad. It's just one of those things that has a bimodal outcome.
Question: Do you feel different before this launch than you did before Flight 1 or Flight 2?
Musk: I think I feel a little more at ease than Flight 1 and Flight 2. In the case of Flight 1, that was the first time we were launching Falcon 9. And when we were developing Falcon 1, the first three flights failed to reach orbit. Fortunately, we learned our lesson there with Falcon 9 and we were able to reach orbit the first time. But given how difficult it was to reach orbit with Falcon 1, I was very on edge for Falcon 9.
And then the second flight was the first flight of Dragon. We had never flown a spacecraft before, let alone recovered one from orbit. So there was a lot that could go wrong there.
This time, we've flown the rocket twice and the spacecraft once, so the big question mark is really around the docking system. So I'll probably feel a bit more worried when Dragon approaches space station, which is three days from now.
Question: So the rendezvous will be the point that gives you the most pause?
Musk: Yeah. Maximum pucker factor occurs during the docking phase.
Question: Can you define success for this mission?
Musk: If the rocket gets to orbit again, that's three in a row for Falcon 9, and that's a huge success for Falcon 9. Then we move to the spacecraft part of things. The first thing we want to do is deploy the solar arrays and make sure those work. We didn't have solar arrays on the first Dragon mission. We'll make sure the solar arrays work and all the new avionics work, then the next level of success will be completing the COTS 2 objectives, which are establishing a communications link with the space station, get the docking sensors locked on to the space station, and do a wide loop around the station. Those are the COTS 2 objectives, which is a flyby.
And then another success will be to go in and connect to the space station and transfer cargo.
Question: Will you be able to get any sleep before launch?
Musk: Launch is at 1:55 a.m. California time, so I'll be following along and then seeing how Dragon is performing on-orbit. We'll have a press conference a couple hours after launch, and then I'll probably get some sleep some time around late morning tomorrow.
Question: When does mission control in Hawthorne take control after launch?
Musk: We take over when Dragon separates from Falcon 9. It's pretty soon, just 10 minutes after liftoff.
Question: How many people are in your control center?
Musk: At launch control, we've got about 20 people or so. And we've probably got 30 at mission control in Hawthorne. But this is a special mission. This is the first time we're going to be going to the space station. We wouldn't ordinarily have 50 people on console for a mission. In the long term, we expect to reduce that number.
Question: Can you describe what modifications you're making to the launch pad at Cape Canaveral?
Musk: The extension to the existing hangar is for payload processing and it's also for Falcon 9 version 1.1, which is longer. It's about 50 percent longer than version 1. We need a little bit of extra length and some extra facilities for the satellites that are coming.
[NOTE: Falcon 9 v1.1 is an upgraded version of the Falcon 9 rocket with more powerful Merlin 1D engines and lengthened propellant tanks. It will also be the core for SpaceX's Falcon Heavy, a colossal booster formed from three first stages strapped together. Falcon Heavy's first test launch is expected as soon as mid-2013.]
Question: When will the first Falcon 9 v1.1 fly?
Musk: We'll certainly be vertical on the pad at Vandenberg [Air Force Base in California] by the end of the year. Launch could be early next year. The launch date depends on how the final phase of testing goes for the next-generation Falcon 9.
Question: What payloads will fly on Falcon 9 v1.1?
Musk: The next version of Falcon 9 will be used for everything. The last flight of version 1.0 will be Flight 5. All future missions after Flight 5 will be v1.1. We've got this mission, which is Flight 3. And we've two CRS [Commercial Resupply Services] missions, Flight 4 and Flight 5, which will fly Version 1.0. Then all future missions, CRS or otherwise, will fly Version 1.1.
Question: How many employees are you at now?
Musk: A little more than 1,800.
Question: As your business expands with potential crew flights, reusability, flyback and vertical landing of Falcon stages, trips to Mars, etc., do you foresee accelerating hiring?
Musk: We expect to continue hiring at a high rate at SpaceX. We've grown on average about 30 percent a year. We might not continue growing at that level, but I expect to continue growing at 15 percent or 20 percent per year. We'll be hiring hundreds of employees every year. That's my expectation.
Question: You believe that hiring rate will be sufficient for your business?
Musk: Absolutely.
Question: What missions will you be doing in 10 years?
Musk: Our goal is to revolutionize space transport. So we'll be doing every kind of space transport, except for suborbital. We'll launch satellites of all shapes and sizes, servicing the space station with cargo and crew, and then the long term objective is to develop a space transport system that will enable humanity to become a multi-planet species.
Question: When do you expect a first manned flight to Mars?
Musk: I think it's probably around 15 years from now. I think the best case is 10 years, and the worst case is 20 years.
Question: Will that be a SpaceX mission, a NASA mission, or led by someone else?
Musk: I have no idea.
Question: Do you want it to be a SpaceX mission?
Musk: I would want it to be a joint mission. My ideal would be if we were going to Mars, it would be with NASA.
Question: When do you plan a SpaceX IPO?
Musk: I think the important thing for SpaceX is that we have a very steady cadence of launches and that we have very good predictability. The market hates unpredictability and punishes you severely for that. We need to be doing a launch a month before we go public, and we might be there by the end of next year. We're not aiming for a date. We'll go public when it makes sense for the company to go public.
Commercial flights can succeed
John Kelly - Florida Today
The barriers to a more robust commercial space flight industry in the United States go beyond NASA’s funding of private flights.
That government’s investment is the most urgent issue this year, but the president of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation offered his take on the biggest issues facing the nascent industry in a wide-ranging discussion with Florida Today journalists on Friday.
Former NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria flew aboard the space shuttles and the Russian Soyuz, commanded the International Space Station, and has walked in space more times and for more hours than any other American. Lopez-Alegria’s mission nowadays is working to make commercial human space flight viable.
“I really believe this is an important piece of the future landscape,” he said.
“There’s a niche to fill. NASA needs commercial services for cargo and crew. This is an elegant, cost-effective and safe way to do it. We could really see the cost of launches come down.”
How so? Well, Lopez-Alegria likens NASA as to an anchor tenant in a shopping center. The gaurantee of a certain number of funded flights not only gives confidence to a company to continue investing, a core the company can build on. If the company combines the government “sales” with some private deals as well, the combination creates a business model that could open the sector to growth.
“The number of launches from U.S. soil goes up. The cost per launch goes down,” he said.
The half-billion dollars or so that the House and Senate are considering giving to NASA to fund its commercial crew program can be a start, “enough for the program to survive and do well.” Though some in the community are pushing for more. One key in any move for more funding would be successful early flights by those already working with NASA, such as SpaceX. Successful tests are momentum-builders when it comes to gathering public and political support.
Beyond the government’s support and funding, additional issues ahead for the industry include regulation and trade regulations.
“We’re trying to keep regulation from being overly burdensome,” Lopez-Alegria said. The industry understands, and welcomes, the government’s need to address safety issues on launch ranges and in the nation’s airspace. But, the federation wants to make sure an array of new rules don’t pop up that could make it too expensive, or too difficult, for innovators to keep pushing their new ideas.
In addition to domestic flight-related rules, the federation is working to make sure that firm controls aimed at keeping space weapons technology out of the hands of America’s potential adversaries are not also holding back the growth of the commercial space industry. Space vehicles are among the types of technology tightly watched under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations — and that could be interpreted in a way that would prevent the new space tourism companies from selling tickets to foreigners from certain countries, limited the market for those flights.
As Lopez-Alegria sees it, what’s good for commercial human space flight is good for the Space Coast.
“Human space flight launches bring tourists,” he said. “You want to have as many launches as you can get, and you want as many of them to be human flights as you can.”
The not-so-secret souvenirs riding historic SpaceX capsule flight to station
Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com
The first U.S. commercial spacecraft to attempt to visit the International Space Station, SpaceX's Dragon, will launch filled with cargo — and something a bit extra — for the orbiting outpost.
The inaugural payload weighs approximately 1200 pounds (544 kilograms) and is mostly comprised of food for the station's crew, student experiments, and storage bags, but the capsule's compliment also includes a stash of space souvenirs commemorating the history-making mission.
SpaceX's second test flight of its unmanned cargo craft, which is set to launch at 3:44 a.m. EDT (0744 GMT) on Tuesday will need to clear a series of approach and maneuvering tests before NASA approves it moving close enough to the station for the crew to grab hold and berth it using the outpost's robotic arm.
If all proceeds as planned though, the Commercial Orbital Transportation System (COTS) 2 mission will be recorded as the first time that a commercial craft linked up with an orbiting complex.
As released by NASA and SpaceX, the cargo manifest for the COTS-2 mission includes a line item described only as the "Official Flight Kit" or OFK. The term dates back to the last of the Apollo moon landings in the 1970s and was used throughout the 30-year space shuttle program.
Simply put, the OFK is a memento-packed pouch carrying the mission's "official" flown-in-space souvenirs.
Patches and pins and more patches (oh my)
The COTS 2 Official Flight Kit manifest, as shared with collectSPACE.com, is more concise than previous space shuttle versions, which could go on for pages with several hundred different categories of souvenirs inventoried. The Dragon OFK has just six entries, but comprises more than 12,000 mementos onboard.
The OFK includes: 2,000 lapel pins that are in the shape of the space station; 2,900 patches, 4,000 decals and 750 lapel pins with the NASA COTS 2 emblem; 2,500 SpaceX mission patches; and one copper medallion.
The manifest provided no additional details about the odd memento out, the copper coin.
The OFK items will make a round trip on board the Dragon capsule, which is the only station-visiting spacecraft other than Russia's manned Soyuz that returns to Earth intact. The SpaceX COTS 2 vehicle is expected to splashdown off the coast of San Francisco by the end of May.
Once retrieved after the flight, the OFK souvenirs will be distributed to NASA and SpaceX team members to thank them for their work making the mission a success.
Have patches (and luck), will travel
The two different COTS mission emblems packed onboard the Dragon represent SpaceX and NASA.
The space agency's oval logo depicts a capsule, although not necessarily the Dragon, launching from Earth toward and past a silhouetted space station. The blue, black and gold insignia identifies the flight as "SpaceX C2+" referring to the mission's attempt to achieve both rendezvous and berthing, separate goals that were originally set by NASA for two test flights.
The SpaceX COTS 2 flight patch prominently features the company's capsule, orbiting above the Earth, approaching the space station's outstretched arm (the station itself is not included).
In addition to SpaceX's Dragon logo, the gray, blue and black patch includes a green four-leaf clover — a symbol that has been reproduced on most, if not all of the SpaceX flight and mission emblems.
"For luck," a SpaceX spokesperson said of the symbol.
END
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